Dick Dastardly
Dick Dastardly is a fictional character and the central character and antagonist who appeared in various animated series by Hanna-Barbera Productions. Dastardly's most famous appearances are as the main antagonist in the series Wacky Races (his initial appearance) and its spin-off Dastardly and Muttley in Their Flying Machines. He is essentially a caricature of the English actor Terry-Thomas, and of Professor Fate, a comic villain played by Jack Lemmon in the film The Great Race. Dastardly was aided in his schemes by his sidekick, a scruffy dog named Muttley who had a distinctive wheezy laugh, heard most often when Dastardly's schemes failed. Apperances *In Wacky Races, Dastardly was one of the drivers who competed in each episode for first place in a long and hazard-filled cross-country road rally. As his name implies, Dastardly aimed to win solely through cheating and trickery. His race car, named The Mean Machine featured all sorts of devious traps for him to use against his opponents. *In the Spin-off, Dastardly and Muttley in their Flying Machines, the double-dealing do badders became World War II like pilots, accompanied by Zilly and Klunk in a neverending quest to stop Yankee Doodle Pigeon from delivering his messages. *In their spin-off wardrobes and a new vehicle, the S.S Dirty Tricks, Dastardly and Muttley became the main antagonists and enemies of Yogi Bear's company in Yogi's Treasure Hunt. *The Wake, Rattle and Roll series featured a Wacky Races themed cartoon racing series called Fender Bender. ''Dastardly and Muttley drive an upgraded Mean Machine, while fufilling the same roles from their original series. *Although Dastardly and Muttley themselves did not appear in ''Scooby's All-Star Laff-a-lympics, the Dreaded Baron and Mumbly resemble them and fill similar roles. *In the movie Stuart Little 4, Dastardly as the transformation like for being related to Snidely Whiplash. and Muttley's Mean Machine]] Character reflections As Wacky Races is inspired by the film The Great Race, so was Dastardly derived from the film's chief villain, Professor Fate, played by Jack Lemmon. Dastardly in this series wore old-fashioned racer's gear — a long blue overcoat, long red gloves, and a large striped hat with driving goggles attached, and sporting a handlebar mustache. Tricks and Traps Despite Dastardly and Muttley's attempts, the "double-dealing do-badders", as the opening narration of Wacky Races describes them, failed to win a single race. Dastardly's plans were always foiled either by his or Muttley's incompetence, the actions of another racer, or sheer bad luck, resulting in Dastardly crossing the finish line last, if at all. On some occasions Dastardly is very close to winning but will fail at the final hurdle. Portrayals Dick Dastardly was voiced originally by Paul Winchell in Wacky Races, Dastardly and Muttley and other cartoon series then by Rob Paulsen and currently by Jim Cummings. Chikao Ōhtsuka does the voice of Dick Dastardly in Japanese. Catchphrases Often it appears that if Dastardly had not bothered to cheat he may have won fairly. Upon tasting defeat, Dastardly would utter his catchphrase: "Drat, drat, and double drat!", "Triple drat!" and even "Curses, foiled again!". His other main catchphrase was "Muttley, do something!". Trivia *Excluding Dastardly and Muttley, all of the other racers won at least one Wacky Races. *Dick Dastardly is one of many characters who Winchell and Cummings have shared another role: including Tigger from Winnie-the-Pooh stories and Zummi Gummi from Disney's Gummi Bears and Gargamel in Smurfs animated media. *On one occasion, in an episode which was voted the worst of the series, Dastardly actually won the race, but it was revealed he had cheated by extending the nose of his car (even though the actual finish shows no such cheating, implying that the judges possibly had the replay footage altered out of bias. Although it should be noted that in the DVD release of this scene the photo finish was covered with smoke, thereby adding even more questions to this scene). *Another time Dastardly has an opportunity to win legitimately, but stopped in front of the finish line to pose for his picture as it was a photo finish. Once he comes close to winning the race, but stopped to sign an autograph for Muttley, ending up in fourth place again Category:Characters Category:Main Characters